Bob in Lebanon is happy about the Syrian withdrawal.

Congratulations Bob, just keep a wary eye on the Syrain intelligence agents, and work hard to keep a fair election.
jp

Royal Flush is Looking for work

The Royal Flush is looking for work....look him up.
he has a .....variety of skills, but would appreciate any referrals that may lead to a return to web content, blogging, or search engine optimization. He's worked for Internet and tech companies since 1998 and has done contract work for several small business websites.

Focus on Belarus - linkfest

As my site is dedicated to analysis and updates of the advancements of freedom and democracy in the Middle East; as I believe this will both (1) increase our security int he US, and (2) atone for 60 years of acquiesence to the rule of dictators to preserve our supply of oil and win the Cold War, this is a little off the beaten path for me.....but I wanted to point briefly to some new links I have found, relating to efforts to increase democracy and freedom in Belarus. This effort will be much more difficult than Ukraine; and I think, more likely to produce bloodshed for its unfortunate and hopefully courageous citizens, as it's current ruler Lukashenko has already demostrated his penchant for violence. And therefore, much more important for focus and determined blogging on our side to help the people in the "last dictatorship in Europe". Happy browsing.

http://www.zubr-belarus.com/index.php?lang=2 Website dedicated to the ZUBR movement in Belarus, much like the PORA and Orange revolution groups in Ukraine

http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/ News site focused on Belarus and democracy efforts

http://pahonia.promedia.by/index_eng.htm news site on Belarus

http://www.sfgd.org/ small US based democracy pushing group that aims to "help democratic activists by giving them aid and training, showing solidarity from students worldwide, and by applying pressure on our own governments"

http://www.sfgd.org/bell/ SFG's Belarus project. Aid and training, and fundraising for the ZUBR Belarus democracy movement

Bulgaria and Romania agree with EU on entry by 2007.

Bulgaria and Romania to sign accession deal today25.04.2005 - 09:58 CET By Elitsa Vucheva
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Bulgaria and Romania will today take their last step on the road to EU accession with the signature of their Accession Treaties.Full membership of the club will follow on 1 January 2007, if the countries live up to their reform promises.The entry of the two former communist states will add some 30 million citizens to the EU’s current 454 million, and extend the Union’s borders to Moldova and the Black Sea.

If Bulgaria and Romania complete the implementation of their reforms and become respectively the EU’s second and third Balkan state in 2007, their accession will also give hope to the Western Balkans.Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia are currently launching their EU accession processes while Croatia is set to open talks at a later point this year. Bulgaria and Romania started membership talks in 2000 and completed them in December 2004.However, the debate on whether or not the countries should join the EU still continues at the national level in some of the member states.In Germany, for example, the region of Bavaria has revolted against Bulgarian and Romanian membership, calling for better control of cheap labour, according to German press on Monday (25 April).

NY Times - protests in Bashkortostan region in Russia

I linked to this story in someone elses's blog (which i dont quite remember) a couple weeks ago, but heres the NY Times, bring up the rear.
Bashkortostan is north of Kazakzstan, east of Samara. Here's a map
http://www.tengri.ru/eng/mapevro.htm


UFA, Russia - Here on the southwestern edge of the Urals, a popular uprising against a regional government is posing one of the most significant challenges yet to President Vladimir V. Putin's political control, raising the possibility that civic protest may be spreading into Russia from its periphery. Heartened by the political upheavals in two of Russia's neighbors, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, thousands here have staged a series of demonstrations since February calling for the ouster of the president of the Bashkortostan region, Murtaza G. Rakhimov.
An ally of President Putin, he has served as the leader of this largely Muslim region, formally an autonomous republic within Russia, since the collapse of the Soviet Union. He won re-election in 2003 in a contest in which his chief opponent withdrew from campaigning, reportedly at the urging of the Kremlin.
The issues are largely local, but the complaints against Mr. Rakhimov's government evoke those that were raised against the recently ousted leaders in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan and are now increasingly heard about Mr. Putin. They include allegations of manipulated elections, increasing state control of business, and corruption.
While Mr. Putin's authority seems to remain solid, events here reflect an emerging sense of grievance and impatience that is increasingly being expressed to one degree or another on the streets across Russia.
"An end will come," Ramil I. Bignov, a businessman and leader of a diverse coalition of Mr. Rakhimov's opponents, said after the latest protest, on April 16. "And it will come soon."
Although Mr. Bignov limited his comments to his hopes for Mr. Rakhimov's political demise, the implications of a successful street campaign against the regional leader would reach Mr. Putin as well, most obviously because Mr. Putin has supported Mr. Rakhimov and because Bashkortostan, like the rebellious Chechen republic, is a part of Russia.
In addition, Mr. Putin has had a hand in shaping the way the dispute here has played out, as a consequence of his decision last year to abolish direct elections of governors and other regional leaders.

Bahraini woman chairs parliament for the first time

Bahraini woman chairs parliament
There are signs of gradual change in Arab women's rights For the first time in the Arab world, a woman has chaired a parliamentary session in the Gulf state of Bahrain.Alees Samaan, who is Christian, also became the first non-Muslim to act as speaker in predominantly Muslim Bahrain, if only for a few hours.Details of the story are published on the front page of Bahraini newspapers, which describe the event as historic.The leading pan-Arab newspaper, al-Hayat, also reported the session on its front page.The Bahraini press speak of warm applause as Ms Samaan walked up to the speaker's chair.At the end of the session, colleagues were said to have rushed to the podium to have their pictures taken with her.

More egyptian journalists imprisoned

Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (Cairo) Press ReleaseYet another violation of freedom of thought and opinion: Cairo Criminal Court imprisons three journalists The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is extremely concerned about the continued application of laws which restrict freedom of opinion, with complete disregard for the promise made by the President that prison sentences in publishing cases would be scrapped. On 17 April 2005, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced journalists Abdel Nasser Ali, Alaa Yehya Mohamed (known as Alaa el Ghatrify) and Youssef Taha Abdel Rahman (known as Youssef el Aoumy) to one year's imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 LE.

Freedom advanced through free trade: US pursues UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait FT deals, after success of Morocco, Jordan, Israel and Bahrain pacts

DUBAI: Trying to entrench its economic and political ties in the region, and blaming the Gulf Cooperation Council's slowness in devising region-wide economic measures, the United States is aggressively pursuing a number of free-trade agreements in this part of the Middle East.
The latest chapter in this effort started in March when Washington initiated free-trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the United Arab Emirates and Oman, two politically moderate countries in the region considered to be U.S. allies in the Middle East.
So far only Jordan and Morocco have signed an FTA with Washington, although the U.S. Congress is likely to ratify soon a similar agreement the United States has signed with Bahrain. Other countries in "serious discussions'' with the United States are Kuwait and Qatar. Many in the Middle East argue - and some in the U.S. agree - that FTAs with governments here are more a matter of politics, although no one denies that in the long term they can be a powerful tool for the countries that sign them.
In 2004, total exports to the U.S. from the six Middle Eastern countries - U.A.E., Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Jordan - amounted to $6.6 billion. Total imports from the U.S. were estimated at $7.2 billion.
Even without an FTA, bilateral trade with those six countries has increased in the past few years, jumping about 30 percent since 2002, although most of that have been U.S. exports rather than imports.

What's next after Ukraine? Belarus, that's what.

Publius Pundit asks what is next for the democracy movement after Ukraine.
Several groups have begun work for democracy in Belarus, which I will be discussing going forward.

As told to me by a leader of SGD (Students for Global Democracy (SGD),
"Founded only a little more than a year ago, we work to do whatever we can to aid the forces of liberty so that one day everyhuman may enjoy the right to basic self-determination. Our grassroots base originates from chapters at a few American universities but has very recently expanded abroad to new chapters in Canada and Nepal, with an affiliate in Ghana. SGD's latest program is the Belarus Endowment for Life and Liberty (BELL) Campaign, which aims to raise funds directly for activists of the ZUBR Movement. The BELL campaign began after a meeting between Pavol Demes of the German Marshall Fund and former foreign minister of Slovakia, Andrei Sannikov of Charter 97, Vladimir Kobets of ZUBR, and others. Briefly, the ZUBR Movement, is the largest and most well-organized democratic opposition group in Belarus. Their model of opposition is the same as the one used by PORA, which led the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, Kmara, which did the same in Georgia, and Otpor, which toppled Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. "

I hope to hear more, and pass along more about these groups in the near future.

Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and others want respect from Russia...and of course, democracy in Belarus

via the Argus http://www.registan.net/
sounds to me that Belarus is next for democratic activisim


GUUAM to challenge Russia
Vladimir Radyuhin
MOSCOW: A regional group of former Soviet states, GUUAM, met in Chisinau, Moldova, to challenge Russia's domination of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The leaders of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan met after a break of two years to breathe new life into their dormant grouping set up in 1999 with strong support from the U.S. to balance Russia's leading role in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The Presidents of Romania, Traian Basescu, and Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, attended the one-day summit as observers. Russia was not invited, though representatives of the United States, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria were present at the meeting. Uzbekistan, which suspended its membership of GUUAM in 2002, refused to re-join the group.

Georgia's President, Mikhail Saakashvili, predicted further "velvet revolutions" in ex-Soviet republics and called for "democratic changes" in Belarus, the next target for the U.S.-led "liberty crusade" in the former Soviet Union.
On Thursday the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, described Belarus ran "the last true dictatorship in the center of Europe."

Bob's analysis of the current situation in Lebanon

The exuberance, the anger, the sadness and then the thrill of victory the pride in our new found unity of the first few weeks, just got muddled over time.The president and those who still followed Syria’s orders had only one goal, to lose time, in order to postpone the election, by any means. For if the election were held on time it would be an overwhelming victory to the opposition.
But, this perfect happy ending frightens me. I sense a trap. Or maybe I am getting too paranoid. There is no way to know. For, as the old saying goes; only time will tell.

It's clearly the election that's key now. We just need ot make sure there are enough monitors to ensure its not stolen. Someone, please keep Jimmy Carter away from the ballot boxes.

So the Syrian military is finally out of Lebanon, if not their security services and the Iranian spies.

“Tomorrow everything will be over,” a Lebanese military officer said Saturday, speaking to The AP on condition of anonymity, as is typical for military officials here.
On Tuesday, Lebanese troops at a base in Rayak, few miles from the Syrian border, will conduct a ceremony to pay tribute to the Syrian Army’s role in Lebanon, a Lebanese military officer said.
Afterward, the token Syrian force will leave, and there will not be a single Syrian soldier left in Lebanon. The Syrians entered Lebanon in 1976, ostensibly as peacekeepers in the year-old civil war. After the war ended in 1990, 40,000 Syrian troops remained in Lebanon, giving Damascus the decisive say in Lebanese politics.

I think actually, that tomorrow, life is just beginning for Lebanon. The election is just days and weeks ahead, and that will be very difficult for Syria to defraud undetected

Great story in Slate about Iraqis who moved to Syria before and during the war, now moving back

Syria Squeezed
Elisabeth Eaves
Going Home
Tuesday, April 19, 2005, at 8:22 AM PT


"I came to feel like I'm a human being," said Ali Raouf Abdul Amir, a patron of the Restaurant of the Youth of Iraq. He arrived on May 25, 2000, before the most recent war. "I had to serve twice in the Iraqi army, and so I couldn't grow at all financially," he said. "Imagine a person my age not married yet." Amir, 30, is an artisan who inlays precious stones into metal in his shop one alley over from the restaurant. His sister and two brothers followed him here and sat out the postwar chaos, but they left six months ago. Amir is now thinking of going home too.

I'm homesick, and I expect the Iraqi government to stabilize things soon," Amir said. He told me that government jobs in Najaf now pay $200 a month, compared to $3 a month under Saddam Hussein. "If the government employees are getting good salaries, they go out and buy televisions and other things," he reasoned. Suleikhi, the trucker, told me government jobs back home now paid $300-$400 a month. In any case, the reports are good. "The standard of living is 100 percent better," Suleikhi said. I have met few men more openly pleased than these two with both Syria and the United States.
"We will never forget about Syria, which hosted us all these years," Amir said, adding that he has had the freedom to do as he pleases here. Syria has allowed Iraqi migrants to send their children to public schools, get medical treatment at public clinics, and obtain drivers' licenses. Suleikhi, for his part, said that he prefers traveling to Syria than to Jordan, because of the psychological bond between Iraqis and Syrians. As for the United States, "the invasion was a good thing," said Suleikhi. Thirty-eight and single, he has been traveling between Syria and Iraq since 1997. He buys parts for cars and trucks in Syria and sells them in Iraq, and he has noticed a major upturn in business since the end of the war.
Amir says he is grateful to the United States for overthrowing Saddam Hussein, but he is more circumspect than Suleikhi. He noted that Najaf, while much improved over recent months, suffers from the lingering blight of occasional terrorist attacks, which he blames on Sunni fundamentalists. He is not entirely sure about the U.S. government's intentions and said that it may have lied about being a liberator rather than an occupier. I asked him what he would do if that was the case. With enviable peace of mind, he said, "We will await Sistani's word and do what he says."

John Bolton is an American Patriot, and needs our support

Confirm John Bolton now.

Freedom House map for 2004

thanks to Willisms...http://www.willisms.com/
Secretary Rice was nice enough to point out that Belarus is the only un-free state left in Europe. I'm guessing that Afghanistan and Iraq will be yellow (partly free, ranked by Freedom House) by next year.

Mike Taibbi gets medieval on Friedman

Matt Taibbi gets brutal with Tom Friedman
"Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you a Thomas Friedman metaphor, a set of upside-down antlers with four thousand points: the icing on your uber-steroid-flattener-cake!"

Only a 60-year committment. Jeeze. you'd think we were bogged down

Occupation Without End in Europe
by James Dunnigan
April 19, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
Thanks American Future, Instapundit,
Sixty years after the end of World War II, there are still 62,000 American troops in Europe. They are stationed in 236 bases, including 13 training areas. The force has been reduced considerably over the years, especially after the Cold War ended in 1991, leaving over a quarter million American troops in Europe. But in 2015 there will still be 24,000 American troops over there, in 88 bases, and using four training areas. The 1st Infantry Division will return from Europe in 2006, and the 1st Armored Division will go home in 2008. Both of these units were originally sent to Europe in 1942. The only major combat unit that will remain in Europe will be the 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is stationed in northern Italy.

Bush speaks to the Lebanese people via interview. check it out.

Thanks to Publiuspundit

President Bush has insisted anew that Syria should "get out completely" from Lebanon and let the Lebanese people decide their own future in internationally monitored elections on schedule and free from external influence or intimidation. Bush pledged, then, to drum up global monetary assistance to help "this country back on its feet."
In a rare direct address to the Arab world, Bush also said in an interview broadcast by Beirut's LBCI television network from the White House he wanted the Assad regime to shut down Hizbullah's office in Syria, asserting the Party of God should disarm in Lebanon.
"The United States can join with the rest of the world, like we've done, and say to Syria, get out -- not only get out with your military forces, but get out with your intelligence services, too; get completely out of Lebanon, so Lebanon can be free and the people can be free," Bush said in the 10-minute interview.
The Syrian withdrawal should include people who "have been embedded in parts of government" to allow Lebanese -- "not another government, not agents of another government" --to decide the country's fate, he said.
Bush's interview, with Arabic subtitles, was aired late Tuesday. A transcript was provided by the White House press office. It grabbed page-one banner-lines in the Beirut press on Wednesday.
The election "ought to be as scheduled. And the elections need to be free and fair, without interference," Bush said, adding that international monitors should oversee the balloting.
Bush said the Lebanese "are tired of living under a government which, in essence, was a foreign occupation." Syria's military presence, the key to its domination of the country, began in 1976 when Syrian forces entered the country to stop a civil war that lasted another 14 years.

Hey Kos, we saw it, and we remember, you animal.

After communism, is this Pope an islamofascism fighter?

FrontPageMagazine.com on the new Pope Benedictus 16

In choosing Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to succeed Pope John Paul II as Pope Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church has cast a vote for the survival of Europe and the West. “Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century,” historian Bernard Lewis predicted not long ago; however, judging from the writings of the new Pope, he is not likely to be sanguine about this transition. For one thing, the new Pope seems to be aware of the grave danger Europeans face: he has called upon Europe to recover its Christian roots “if it truly wants to survive.”
For while his predecessor kissed the Qur’an and pursued a consistent line of conciliation toward the Islamic world, despite numerous provocations and attacks against Catholics in Muslim countries, the new Pope Benedict XVI, while no less charitable, has been a bit more forthcoming about the reality of how Islam challenges the Catholic Church, Christianity, and even the post-Christian West. He has spoken up for the rights of converts from Islam to Christianity, who live under a death sentence in Islamic countries and increasingly live in fear even in the West. He has even spoken approvingly of Christians proselytizing Muslims — a practice that enrages Muslims and is against the law in many Islamic countries.
The new Pope has criticized Europe’s reluctance to acknowledge its Christian roots for fear of offending Islam’s rapidly growing and increasingly influential presence in European countries — a presence which, as historian Bat Ye’or demonstrates in her book Eurabia, has been actively encouraged and facilitated by European leaders for over three decades. “What offends Islam,” said Cardinal Ratzinger, “is the lack of reference to God, the arrogance of reason, which provokes fundamentalism.” He has criticized multiculturalism, “which is so constantly and passionately encouraged and supported,” because it “sometimes amounts to an abandonment and disavowal of what is our own.”

Sec. Rice has some serious discussions in Russia

Her comments were among the strongest of any American officials about Russia's energy industry, apparently reflecting sharpening concern not only about Russian business practices but also about high oil prices.
Ms. Rice said she had told Mr. Putin that the seizure of the oil conglomerate Yukos and the prosecution of its executives "shook people's confidence" in Russia's transition to democracy and a free economy, and that investors needed reassurance "that there is indeed rule of law" for businesses and investments. "It's a sector that could be performing, I think, better," she told reporters on her plane to Vilnius, adding that Russia should put forward "rules that people can understand" that were "applied consistently over time" in a way that did not handicap foreign investors.

In a half-hour interview, she answered questions about the expanding American military presence on Russia's periphery and about the role American support for democracy might have played in the ousting of governments in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
Alexei Venediktov, editor in chief and the host, asked her pointedly if the United States was trying to export democracy the way the Soviet Union sought to export socialist revolution. "There's an important difference here," she said. "You do not actually have to export democracy." She said democracy rose from within a state, though the United States had supported private organizations and institutions in some countries to move the process along. "We see this as not a zero-sum game but one in which everyone has much to gain," she said.
Ms. Rice bantered occasionally with Mr. Venediktov in Russian, which she has studied, but she apologized for speaking largely in English, saying she felt too intimidated by Russian grammar to feel comfortable speaking Russian for the whole interview.
Here in Lithuania, Ms. Rice kept up her theme that democracy was spreading throughout the old Russian sphere of influence, and fired a shot at what she said was one country in the old Soviet Union that remained authoritarian: "Belarus is really the last true dictatorship in central Europe, and it is time for change to come," she said.
On the plane, Ms. Rice said she had tried to send the message to Mr. Putin not to fear democracy. "I wanted to send a very strong message that the United States does not see developments in the former Soviet states, now independent states, as in any way anti-Russian or meant to diminish Russian influence," she said.
She said the same thing at a meeting with the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, who countered that he wanted the United States to be a strong democratic country playing a significant role in the world.
But Ms. Rice said she did not feel the Russian side was defensive when the issues were brought up. "They are willing to talk about them," she said.

Slow progress in freedom for women, but progress nonetheless, in Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY, 20 April 2005 — In a first step toward granting women full political rights, Kuwaiti lawmakers agreed yesterday to allow women to vote and run in local council elections, but the measure requires more legislative action before it would become law.
The measure was taken on a 26-20 vote for women’s participation with three abstentions. The session was attended by more than three quarters of the 64 lawmakers and Cabinet ministers entitled to vote.
A second reading of the bill and a second vote, expected in two weeks, was required before the bill becomes a law. Then it would require the Kuwaiti ruler’s signature, generally a formality and the emir has made clear in the past he supports women’s political rights.
“Thank God, the first step toward women’s rights has been completed ... We are waiting for the major step and I am sure it will be approved like this one,” Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said.
“I congratulate my sisters for obtaining their rights in municipal elections and they will get their other rights in voting and standing in parliamentary elections,” he told reporters after the vote.

Stefania asks for assistance in helping Iranian bloggers

Scrill down Stefania's site, below the Iranian protest pictures. There is a request for assistance.

check it out

This report is for SMCCDI's mailing list members only; Asthe http://www.daneshjoo.org website has been shut downsince last Friday due to Movement's desperate need offinancial help.The SMCCDI's web site gets 45,000 to 65,000 visits each daywith picks of 183,000 hits on key dates such as July 9th(anniversary of Students' Uprising of 1999). It's a maintool helping to keep the world informed on the plight ofIranian Nation.An Urgent Call for Help has been issued requesting fordonations of any amount that can be made online

Quotes from Tent City freedom lovers in Mother Jones mag.

"We will remain here until there is a government that is not pro-Syrian," says Natalie Francis, a 17-year-old who mentions with a hint of pride that her teacher sanctioned her absence from school today, becomes my unofficial guide to the camp for an hour or so.
"My dad fought in the war—he doesn't talk about it," she says. "Bad memories." "We are united. Why are you talking about Sunni and Shia?" "The Shia do what they are told," one of Francis's friends offers, derisively referring to the leadership of Hizbollah, which has led counterdemonstrations because of the opposition's calls for the militia to disarm and the support it receives from Syria.
"But now we have the Sunnis [Hariri was Sunni] on our side, and there are more of us than there are of them."
"Christians are not Arabs," says 22-year-old John Bechara, whose father was a member of the (banned) Lebanese Forces militia and spent eight years in a Syrian prison after the war ended in 1990.
"Our ancestors are Phoenician." Bechara and Francis both agree that Lebanon's confessional system, which stipulates a Maronite president, Sunni prime minister and Shiite speaker of parliament, should remain in place.

and of course Michel Totten is in the thick of things......
The leaders of the camp downplay divisions within the opposition, as does Michael Totten, a 34-year-old journalist sent to Beirut by Spirit of America, a non-partisan American NGO that is helping fund the camp.
"I see that there's a lot of people who are willing to confront since the war ended," Totten said. "Very tentatively, they're willing to try and bridge a huge gulf of hate and mistrust of the other. And they're doing it when there are these bombs going off — those bombs remind people of what it was like when the war started."
"At the same time, Lebanon is not united — there's a lot of people that are trying to untite the country, but they're not there yet," Totten said. "The Hizbollah part of Beirut, they didn't come out. Not everybody is as interested in the national reconciliation."
"I don't hear anybody making real overtures," to Hizbollah Totten said. "I do hear people saying they're going to have to figure out how to do that, but they don't know how to do it yet. They're going to have to do it at some point. I hear a lot of talk about not wanting to do something to upset them."

Tent city still needed, as its still not clear that elections will happen on time

NAJIB MIKATI, Lebanon’s Prime Minister, named his new Government yesterday, ending seven weeks of political deadlock and raising hopes that parliamentary elections can be held on time next month.

Mr Mikati, who was appointed Prime Minister last week, said that he would act swiftly to remove the pro-Syrian heads of Lebanon’s security agencies, fulfilling a main opposition demandInternational pressure for timely elections has increased in recent weeks. The United States and France have warned Syria that it would be held accountable for any delay.
Mr Mikati, a telecommunications tycoon with ties to President Assad of Syria, said that the new 14-member Government “will spare no effort to conduct the elections on deadline”.
The breakthrough came as the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon nears completion, with an estimated 1,500 soldiers remaining of some 14,000 stationed there before Mr Hariri’s murder

standard news update on Lebanese elections, for those of you on a desert island

BEIRUT, Lebanon Apr 19, 2005 — Lebanese leaders appointed a new government Tuesday, ending a seven-week stalemate and pushing the country toward crucial parliamentary elections. The breakthrough came as the number of Syrian troops in Lebanon dwindled to 1,000 the lowest in 29 years. The political breakthrough came when Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati succeeded on Tuesday in forming a new Cabinet, paving the way for parliamentary elections next month.
Mikati announced the formation of an exceptionally small Cabinet, with only 14 ministers instead of the outgoing 30. None will run in the elections a condition Mikati sought to show neutrality in the bitter polarization between pro- and anti-Syrian factions.
A senior Lebanese military officer said Syria has only 1,000 troops left in Lebanon and they will be gone by April 26, ending a 29-year military presence. The force stood at 14,000 troops in February, indicating the swiftness of the pullout.

Debkawatch points ou t a new whopper. Jordan to annex the West bank???

Sounds interesting, I've thought it might be a solution all these years, especially as thousands of Palestinians live in Jordan anyway. However un-democratic a takeover might be, the Palestinians have just about proven to all that they can't govern themselves, without killing Israelis. Final Historian's got it right though. File this one under "much verification needed"

Secretary of State Rice in Moscow, on the worrying anti-democracy trends

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, starting a two-day trip to Moscow, said on Tuesday the Kremlin's tightening grip on power and Russia's pliant media were "very worrying."
"Trends have not been positive on the democratic side," Rice told reporters on board her plane en route to Moscow, where she was due to meet President Vladimir Putin and other top officials.
"The centralization of state power in the presidency at the expense of countervailing institutions like the Duma (parliament lower house) or an independent judiciary is clearly very worrying. The absence of an independent media on the electronic side is clearly very worrying," she added.
Rice also said it "would not be a positive development" if Putin changed the constitution to be able to run for a third successive term.

Dictator portraits, courtesy Publius Pundit

pictures of dictators around the world, via Publius Pundit http://arthuredelstein.org/worlddictators/

Freedom enlivens the soul. Thanks to Chris Hitchens

....an Iraqi passerby, not connected with the conference, came up to introduce himself. He was almost crying as he thanked Dr. Ibrahim for being one of the few Arab voices to have opposed Saddam from way back. "We shall never forget you. Our lives were meaningless. Happiness was impossible. We could not be human. Now our life is more risky but worth living."

My take: It's not a mirage, and freedom for the Middle East won't mean that enemies of the US will be eliminated from power, but the US will be on the right side of history in the region for the first time in decades.

"Is this the beginning of a spring of freedom, or will it be one of those desert mirages that the Middle East is known for?" asked the Egyptian opposition leader Saad Eddin Ibrahim. He answered: "It's not a mirage. But whether it's a full-fledged spring, I'm not sure."
Some (at the a U.S.-Islamic conference ... in Doha, Qatar, sponsored by the Qatari government and Washington's Brookings Institution) also reported the beginnings of a turnaround in attitudes toward the United States, which were at rock-bottom a year ago: The Bush administration, they said, had bolstered its image and influence through the elections in Iraq, its encouragement of elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and its vocal support for opposition leaders in Egypt and Lebanon.
Over the weekend the opposition appeared to gain a tactical advantage: A hard-line candidate for prime minister directly backed by Syria lost out to the more moderate Najib Mikati, a friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad nevertheless promised to hold the elections on time. "The plan for the Middle East that the Americans are selling is a plan the Lebanese have had for a long time," Mikati told me as he prepared to form what he said would be a centrist government. "Now for the first time in our history we have the opportunity. And each of us has to ask ourselves, are we ready and capable to govern ourselves, yes or no?"

WaPost's Jackson Diehl in Qatar experiences some reality with Egyptian opposition leader Ibrahim and new Lebanese PM Mikati

My take: It's not a mirage, and freedom for the Middle East won't mean that enemies of the US will be eliminated from power, but the US will be on the right side of history in the region for the first time in decades.

"Is this the beginning of a spring of freedom, or will it be one of those desert mirages that the Middle East is known for?" asked the Egyptian opposition leader Saad Eddin Ibrahim. He answered: "It's not a mirage. But whether it's a full-fledged spring, I'm not sure."
Some (at the a U.S.-Islamic conference ... in Doha, Qatar, sponsored by the Qatari government and Washington's Brookings Institution) also reported the beginnings of a turnaround in attitudes toward the United States, which were at rock-bottom a year ago: The Bush administration, they said, had bolstered its image and influence through the elections in Iraq, its encouragement of elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and its vocal support for opposition leaders in Egypt and Lebanon.
Over the weekend the opposition appeared to gain a tactical advantage: A hard-line candidate for prime minister directly backed by Syria lost out to the more moderate Najib Mikati, a friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad nevertheless promised to hold the elections on time. "The plan for the Middle East that the Americans are selling is a plan the Lebanese have had for a long time," Mikati told me as he prepared to form what he said would be a centrist government. "Now for the first time in our history we have the opportunity. And each of us has to ask ourselves, are we ready and capable to govern ourselves, yes or no?"

From Peter Robinson on the Corner, maybe the new Pope will show the Europeans what to do with the Freedom that the last Pope helped win them

…and the faith is Europe." Hillaire Belloc was overstating the case when he composed that famous formulation, but of course he was onto something: It was in Europe (including the Mediterranean world) that the great doctrines of the faith were worked out and indeed where our civilization arose. Throughout the twenteith century, Europe remained the battleground—two world wars, the great struggles against totalitarianism. By electing Benedict XVI, the College of Cardinals has recognized that Europe remains the battleground even now. Materialism, libertinism, the collapse of civilizational morale—all these are furthest advanced in Europe, and nowhere more so than in Benedict’s homeland, Germany.
John Paul, a titanic figure, stood up to totalitarianism—and won. Perhaps it will prove the mission of Benedict, "a humble worker," as he called himself an hour ago, to show ordinary Europeans what to do with the freedom they have now achieved. Posted at 01:46 PM

What we now know is...

The US military has no competitors and can defeat anything that moves, so our only demand of other countries is...don't foment nor support religious hatred which leads to terrorism. We don't really care if you are against or for our political policies. The best bet for eliminating the sources of this hatred are market economies and liberated political societies. This is why we are supporting democratic efforts in the middle east. If people are free to be protesting the garbage pickup and schools situations without fear of assassination, they will not feel the need to take out that repressed anger on us.

Again, the US may have deserted freedom loving Lebanese in the 1980's, but we are firmly on the side of Freedom today

The 1989 Taif Accord that ended the Lebanese war consolidated Syria's control, establishing "special relations" with Lebanon. This was brokered by Hariri, a courtier of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and close friend of the then Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac. Syria was given a free hand in 1990 as recompense for joining the Gulf war coalition to oust Saddam Hussein after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Indeed, Assad was a main beneficiary of the Gulf war.
From then on, Lebanon was under Syrian domination and lost its strategic relevance - the Lebanese and Syrian tracks became inseparable. This was all done with the blessing of U.S. President George H.W. Bush, and in line with the dictum of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: "Give Lebanon to Syria and there will be peace in the Middle East." Many of the problems that the U.S. abandoned in Lebanon in 1983 came back to haunt it 20 years later. The country was a microcosm of all the conflicts in the Middle East. The continuing occupation of southern Lebanon by Israel radicalized the Shiite population and strengthened Hizbullah, which the U.S. and Israel are now so keen to get rid of. Hizbullah's successful operations in the South eventually drove Israel to withdraw its forces from the area and end its 22-year occupation in May 2000, thus making Hizbullah the only party to ever defeat the Arabs' powerful enemy. This probably inspired the intifada of that year in Palestine, which sank the peace process.

All Lebanon , All the Time

Hi folks, as the elections are only 12 days away, I will be focusing on Lebanon pretty much full time here, just FYI.

Lebanon Freedom Blogging

Check it out. 12 days to go till the Lebanese Elections. These guys and gals are blogging from the Tent City in Beirut.

Big Pharaoh says we should be careful when celebratin ghte beginnings of Arab democracy

"There is a sense of joy and optimism in the Western world, especially in the US, about the “Arab spring” of democracy we are currently witnessing. There is a feeling that outside pressure, when coupled with pressure from inside, can force Arab rulers to change the status quo and do things that they never thought about doing in the past. There is a lot of truth in this and the current changes across the Arab world should be welcomed and cheered. Nevertheless, we should be careful and not allow “cheering” and “joy” to completely overtake us and prevent us from seeing all the reality on the ground. Let me explain."

I agree, except that it is a joyous thing to see that the US is perhaps going to far on the democracy front, rather than sitting back and being happy with "our dictators". Definitely a move in the right direction.

Open hearts and true hope for Freedom in Lebanon

Michel Totten is performing some front line diplomacy and freedom forwarding in Lebanon.
check it out

True democracy happens in Iraq & Big Pharaoh's trust in democracy wins him 50 Pounds

America delivering true democracy will slowly get through the media haze and 60 years of distrust, and sooner or later, Freedom will reign.

Cognratulations GM, and Congratulations, Iraq

"Sunday, April 10, 2005
Iraqi New Prime Minister Hands Me 50 Egyptian Pounds!!It might be a little bit later but I really want to share this. Right before the Iraqi elections a colleague at work told me that he is sure that "Allawi will be reinstalled by the Americans after the elections end and that these elections are a complete shame". "No, Sistani's list will win big time and Allawi will lose his job" I told him."Allawi is America's puppet, they will never accept someone with a religious background to become PM. You will see, after these shame and fraudulent elections, Allawi will still be enthroned by his American masters" he reiterated."I don't think so. Iraq will have a change of power after the elections period,something we are not used to in the Arab world. You wanna bet that Allawi willlose his job? 50 pounds OK?" I shot back."OK. 50 pounds" he answered.Well, last Thursday Ibrahim Jaffari was sworn in and I got my 50 pounds ($8.6)."

I think Amarji has it right, and I've been in it too...a Lull. Maybe it's because of the Pope, rest his soul.

......"Indeed, it is a different sort of angst that I feel now, hard to decipher or fathom. It will take me a while to figure it out. Still, one thing is certain at this stage. The Lull will not last long. The Lull will be coming to an end all too soon. Like it or not, I'll have to be ready for a new round of interrogations, confrontations and threats. Yes. This time there will be threats.I am sure of it.The plot continues to thicken. And I continue to wrestle with myself over issues I thought were long resolved. But no. Nothing get resolved while we live. A lull just imposes itself upon us every now and then.But this one was just too short. Too short.Still, it will have to do."

Josh Landis at SyriaComment.com highlights the EU holding trade over Syrias head - until they're out of Lebanon

Josh posts at this site: http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/syriablog/index.html

EU Trade Pact with Syria Stalled Over Lebanon

By Lin NoueihedDAMASCUS (Reuters) - The European Union will not sign amuch-delayed trade and aid pact with Syria unless Damascuspulls all forces out of Lebanon and does not interfere in itsneighbor's elections, the EU ambassador said on Monday. FrankHesske told Reuters the EU was unlikely to sign the AssociationAgreement, which will widen Syrian access to its markets, untilSyria complies with a U.N. resolution demanding an end toforeign meddling in Lebanon. The pact has already been delayedby wrangling over weapons of mass destruction."I don't see how we could consider signature earlier than... fulfillment of these two conditions: full, verifiablewithdrawal of troops and intelligence services and the issue ofwhat we really see on the ground, free transparent elections ornot," Hesske said in an interview.Syria promised the United Nations on Sunday it would endits 29-year military and intelligence presence in Lebanon byApril 30, in line with the U.S. and French-sponsoredresolution.Facing mounting international pressure since the Feb. 14assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafikal-Hariri, Syria has already begun withdrawing thousands oftroops it poured into Lebanon early in the country's 1975-1990civil war.But Hesske said the EU would want to ensure that Syria wasnot interfering in Lebanese parliamentary elections, due inMay, which anti-Syrian opposition politicians believe will givethem a majority in a chamber now dominated by allies ofDamascus.Syria says it supports free elections in Lebanon."The objective of such an Association Agreement is to bringboth parties much closer together, so ... you are very muchinterested that you are cooperating ... with a partner who isbehaving in a way which is acceptable for international law,"Hesske said. "So a country which has been targeted byresolution 1559, for instance, has to comply ... That seemslogical to me."

Abu Aardvark also points us to a Tunisian protest, prevented by police. This time it was an anti-Sharon rally.

Tunisian police prevent anti-Sharon protest in Tunis
Fri April 8, 2005 4:04 PM GMT+02:00
TUNIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of police were deployed in Tunis on Friday to prevent a demonstration against a government invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to visit a country that was once home to the exiled PLO.
The Tunisian government said in February it was inviting about 100 government leaders, including Sharon, to attend a U.N.-backed World Summit on the Information Society in November.
Saying the visit, the first by an Israeli leader, would bring lasting shame to Tunisia, opposition parties planned a demonstration against the invitation on Friday.

Sorry for the break. Now I'm back. Abu Aardvark has a protestst wrap-up

here's his comments. He';s got an interesting photo of Egyptian riot police holding back a rally at a university.

People understandably get swept up in the novelty of new kinds of demonstrations. But we shouldn't forget that the "old school" issues are still there, and they still matter. Anti-American sentiments remain very strong, even if the American media has largely changed its storyline after the Iraqi elections and the Lebanon and Egypt developments. In an online al Jazeera poll which ended today, 84.1% of respondents agreed that "America carries the responsibility for the violence in Iraq."
The shift of power towards mobilized publics and a politics